Cheshire-based wealth management firm Equilibrium Asset Management has pledged to raise £1m through its charitable foundation – after surpassing its initial £250,000 target by some distance.

Established by the company in 2010, the Equilibrium Foundation had aimed to raise a quarter of a million pounds by 2020. However, as of 2019 the Foundation has already raised over £280,000.

Now Equilibrium – which won the 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year award at the Greater Manchester Business Awards – has set the Foundation a new target of raising £1m by 2028 through a variety of fundraising efforts and initiatives.

Gaynor Rigby, Managing Partner at Equilibrium Asset Management, said: “Giving back is part of the very fabric of Equilibrium – we do a lot of work through the Equilibrium Foundation and always emphasise the importance of charity work to the team.

“We were also one of the founding partners of Tackle4MCR, Vincent Kompany and Andy Burnham’s fundraising vehicle for homelessness.”

Equilibrium is now launching a “give as you earn” initiative with the aim of getting at least half of its staff to donate to the Foundation every month. These donations ill then be topped up by a fixed amount, per participant, by Equilibrium.

Equilibrium staff are already allocated into eight “house teams” and each of these are being asked to nominate a charity. Employees can then choose which of these charities they would like their pot to be donated to.

The Foundation also runs a Community Support Scheme, with which it awards grants to local charities and community groups. To date, this has donated in excess of £17,000 to over 40 charitable causes since its inception in 2015.

In addition, the Foundation champions financial literacy and in 2017 launched a scheme to educate schoolchildren about money. This is done through workshops that centre around a book called “Libby’s Big Aeroplane Adventure” and encourages children to think about money in a fun and engaging way.

So far, the scheme has reached over 1,500 children.

Gaynor continued: “We are so happy to learn that our efforts have raised so much and are excited to set the bar even higher. I have every faith that the team will knock it out the park and help to effect change in the lives of some incredibly deserving people.”

Equilibrium was founded by Colin Lawson over 23 years ago and was recently awarded a place on the coveted “Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For” list for the third year in a row.

The recently outlined its target to have £1.4bn in assets under management by 2021.

Colin added: “We aim to give our clients ‘financial freedom’, and we hope that through these charity efforts, we can also afford a level of freedom to individuals and groups in need.”

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